Flu Jab

[Lord Lardy]

Ladies/Gents,

Anyone ever get the flu jab? If so have you found it useful and has it worked? Normally around this time of year we get a well illustrated e mail from management offering us where we can get it at their expense. Have never taken them up on the offer but as I'm just getting over a bad dose of the flu, I could do without repeating the process for another few months!

[777AV8R]

Well, the only time that I've ever been sick in the last 15 years, has been when I've had a flu shot. Each time I get it, within 6 hours, I get sick and am 'out of it' for 2 or 3 days. I talked it over with my flt surgeon and he doesn't recommend getting in, in my case. Everyone else might be different as each body is unique. I haven't had a vaccination in 4 years and haven't been sick.

[Albert Driver]

The vast majority of illnesses reported by patients as "flu" are not influenza at all but other viral illnesses, some of which can themselves be quite debilitating. I am not aware of a strain of influenza being about at the moment so this probably applies to the report of the OP.

Flu jabs are precisely tailored to the strain of influenza thought most likely to arrive in the UK over the coming winter. Frequently these anticipated strains do not in fact arrive to cause us a problem. There is little point in having a jab if you are young, fit and well and therefore not at serious risk if the anticipated strain does in fact arrive. The jab is there to protect those who through age or disability would be at serious risk if they caught flu. The jab will not protect you from the other viral illnesses which are endemic in this country and we all get from time to time. There are so many of these strains which reappear from time to time that it would be impossible produce a vaccine to protect against them all.

[Engine overtemp]

777Av8R Well, the only time that I've ever been sick in the last 15 years, has been when I've had a flu shot.
I'm impressed that in 15 years that your flying program has never coincided with a bout of flu or the common cold, or do you just plod on regardless of the health of your crew or flight safety?

Too many times have I heard people wheezing at the controls claiming they are fit for work when they obviously aren't!

[niknak]

I have one every year, courtesy of my employer and every year,4 to 5 days later, without fail, I get flu symptoms which lay me low for one or two days.

Its so predictable that when I get the appointment, I ask for specific rest days to cover the sickness as opposed to taking them as sick days off.

[27mm]

My Base Cdr had the jab 8 days ago - yesterday she went down with what looks to me like 'flu, or maybe Winter Vomiting virus: constant headache, muscle pains, fever, vomiting and diarrhoea. Make me wonder if having the jab is really worth it.....

[5150]

I had the flu jab when they first became available. I didn't get the flu, but I couldn't sleep on the side they jabbed for about a week!!

[henry crun]

I have had the jab for the last 15 years without any problems, no side or after effects.

Apart from the occasional cold type sniffles, I have also not caught the flu, even when others around me have been laid low with it.

[A2QFI]

At my age, together with still working and living by myself, a dose of flu would be mildly inconvenient. I have had the jab for the last 8 years and I haven't had any 'flu like symptoms' in that time. I have no idea if this is good luck or the effect of the jab. Re unpleasant side effects, these are mentioned in a leaflet I was given to read after I had had this year's jab!

[gingernut]

The flu jab won't give you flu.

If you are not deemed as "at risk," who's gonna benefit from you getting the jab? You, or the company.

Just a thought.:)

[kpd]

Sorry but the medical evidence is over-whelming flu jabs will not give you the flu and will protect you from the strains it covers.
Some more points-
1. Do not forget that all flu epidemics start in Asia but thanks to air travel now spread round the globe much more rapidly than before ( remember SARS). So influenza virus is already present in many countries that you may fly to.
2. I do not know whether the pilots have their own air supply but everyone else is clearly at risk from recycled air with one passenger coughing flu virus out at incredible speed.
3. It is only a matter of time before we get a real flu pandemic or world-wide serious illness. There is again evidence that those whose immune system has been primed by flu jabs may, and I stress may be better able to cope!!
If it is offered free take it doctors do!!

[gingernut]

Well, some do, but remember that the aim of the flu-jab is to prevent death and serious illness in those at risk of the consequences of the flu.

If your interested, the guidelines are at in the "Green Book" on the Dof H website.

[777AV8R]

I didn't mention colds...I will catch a cold about once/year and won't fly with it. And as for the flu, like I said, the only time that I've had it or its symptoms is when I get vaccinated. Also, I work over in M.E./Asia where everyone says it all starts.

[hunterboy]

How many of the posters have actually had flu? When you're lying in bed wishing you were dead with your head in a bucket feeling like death....then you have flu. I'm in my thirties, and I get the vaccine every year. It doesn't stop me from catching colds, but I haven't felt caught flu for nearly 12 years now (when I had to miss a Christmas trip)

[Avitor]

I have a flu jab every year, with no side effects whatever. Since I have been having them, I have never contacted the flu. Come to think of it, I have never had a heavy cold either, though that is a totally different entity.
My vote goes for the jab. :)

[gingernut]

Oh allright then, you've convinced me,I'll have one this year.

I just don't like needles:{ unless I'm sticking them in someone else.

[Blues&twos]

I have a flu jab every year which my employer provides. It's not a live vaccine, so won't give you flu. I've never had any symptoms whatsoever from this vaccination, in fact the only symptoms I've ever had from any vaccination was an achey arm for a few hours. This was several years ago when I was working on live medical vaccine production and had to have cholera/typhoid injections every six months to protect me. The only problem with the vaccination is that it wioll only provide cover for the specific strain, so if a different strain wanders along.......

Genuine flu is horrible and can be fatal for vulnerable patients.

[Captain Galactic]

Airline management laugh at pilots who boast about never using sick days! You think managers don't use their sick days.....think again.

[scanscanscan]

When recovering from my heart attack at the Norfolk & Norwich hospital I met a young man aged about 28-30ish who was waiting for a heart transplant...sadly I am told he did not get one in time and died.
He told me he had caught flu but had continued to work through it as a builders labourer as they had an urgent job to complete...he had kept going by continually taking Lem Sips....apparently the flu symptoms were masked and he managed to keep going and complete the job but it turns out the flu had damaged his heart to the extent he now needed a transplant.....He advised me he now knew you should not do manual work if you have flu and you should see a doctor and follow their advise and treat flu seriously...just like the NHS does by providing flu shots.
Probably this may be good advice to aircrew.

[take_up_slack]

2. I do not know whether the pilots have their own air supply but everyone else is clearly at risk from recycled air with one passenger coughing flu virus out at incredible speed.

Sorry, kpd, but I can't let that one go. You are at no more risk of infection spread in an aircraft than on a bus or train, actually, you are probably at less risk because of the quality of the filters and the controlled air flow within the cabin. Obviously if you're the poor sod sitting next to someone unfit to fly the filters are not going to help, but they wouldn't in a theatre or on the tube either.
FWIW I had the jab yesterday and a (very) sore arm is my only side effect. Last year I had it straight after coming back from a trip (tired and cold-y) and promptly went down with a cold. My company warns you not to have it if you're already ill, but I thought I knew better. Learnt my lesson for this year.